


Define: Life Goes On

by windupParadox



Category: The Walking Dead (Telltale Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Gen, Post-Canon, Vignette
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-17
Updated: 2019-07-21
Packaged: 2020-06-29 22:30:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19839832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/windupParadox/pseuds/windupParadox
Summary: Clementine decides to read the dictionary. A series of loosely connected short vignettes following the ending of the Final Season that will go as long as I continue to feel like writing them.





	1. Coda: A Concluding Remark

**Author's Note:**

> Fair warning, I'm meant to be studying my GRE vocabulary but I wanted to write fanfiction so I this is my compromise: writing fanfiction about GRE vocabulary.

Beautiful weather graced the campus of Castle Violet once again. Even after a month on the wooden prosthetic, Clementine's movement was stilted and clumsy. The enervation of losing a foot was mostly gone, but now she had to learn to walk all over again, and it wasn't as easy as she'd hoped. An endless source of frustration, but now, at last, the seasoned itinerating survivor was beginning to settle into their forced retirement. Another day, another book.  
  
"Whoa there Ms. Scholarly, what's the massive tome?" Clementine set the weighty book down on the table between herself and Violet and motioned for the girl to see for herself. "New Oxford American Dictionary. Seriously Clem?"  
  
"Got a problem with words, Violet?"  
  
"Words are fine, there are some I really like. But reading a dictionary... Clem I know I said I you getting all booky is cute but even you've got to admit that's a bit sad."  
  
Clementine rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to read the dictionary, Violet. I'm going to find words I like, teach them to AJ."  
  
"Oh yes, the pinnacle of survival skills; a vast vocabulary."  
  
Clementine knew Violet was just poking fun, but the comment dug deeper than intended. When she had lost her foot, Clementine's own survival skills had been severely cut. It had been Violet herself who convinced Clementine that she could find meaning in life beyond just honing her ability to stay alive.  
  
"Vi, let me have this. I like words, and I like teaching AJ things."  
  
"Oh boy, just what this place needs. Teachers." Violet's tone was obstinate but she had a wry smile which dared Clementine to stoop to her level. Fine then.  
  
"Do I sense envy?" Clementine flipped open the dictionary and began skimming the pages for an appropriate entry. "There's no need to be sardonic, Violet. You're welcome to join in on the lessons."  
  
Violet furrowed her brow at the challenge. "Sardonic? Is that really the best you got? I've heard it before, it's a fancy word for sarcastic."  
  
"I"m pretty sure they're not actually interchangeable. It's more explicitly about mocking someone," Clementine said, already flipping through the book for more ammo.  
  
"Whatever! I was close enough."  
  
"Now now, Violet," Clementine spoke once more with her finger on the page. "There's no need to be so truculent."  
  
Violet blinked, appearing nonplussed. "Did you just call me see-through?" She then blushed when Clementine's laughter immediately followed.  
  
"That's _translucen_ t. Truculent means 'eager to get into arguments.' It's a very you word."  
  
"And yet you love me anyway, for some reason," Violet teased. But this was a familiar tactic, and Clementine knew just how to disarm her opponent.  
  
"I do. Want me to list the reasons why?" Clementine replied without a drop of sarcasm. Once again, she had the older girl blushing intensely. One of life's simple pleasures.  
  
"I, er, gotta go check on Willy. Make sure his uh, shift on watch is going alright."  
  
Violet stood from the table and turned to walk off, but Clementine wasn't quite done. "Good thinking. Willy can be pretty frenetic sometimes."  
  
"What's that one mean!? And how are you finding these so fast!?"  
  
"Uncontrollably energetic. And I didn't find that one in the book, a woman I knew a long time ago taught me it. She used to call her son frenetic all the time."  
  
Violet let out a huff and began marching off once more. But carried on a gentle breeze Clementine could hear her girlfriend repeating to herself the words and definitions quietly to herself. She was trying to commit them to memory. It was a gesture with no pragmatism. Violet was doing it purely because she knew it would make Clementine smile. One of the reasons she loved Violet, high on the list.  


* * *

  
  
"Here, try this one."  
  
AJ looked closely at where Clementine pointed on the page. "Paaar... paaroohee-"  
  
"Chi, parochi," Clementine quickly corrected.  
  
"Parochial," AJ finished, looking up to Clementine for approval.  
  
"Now the definition, AJ."  
  
"Adjective, having a limited or narrow outlook or scope."  
  
"Now use it in a sentence," came Violet, who was lounging over on Clementine's bed and pretending not to be interested.  
  
"Uh, James was parochial?" AJ offered.  
  
Clementine grimaced a bit. "I wouldn't call him that. He wasn't parochial, he was..." Her sentence drifted to silence as she spent a few silent minutes finding a satisfactory word from the book. "Heterodox. Not conforming with accepted or orthodox standards or beliefs. Just because he didn't think of the walkers the same way we did doesn't mean any of us were parochial."  
  
"Oh. So should I try again?"  
  
Clementine looked back over her shoulder at Violet, who shrugged back. "Nah, sounds like you got the meaning anyway." Clementine now turned sections of pages rapidly for another interesting looking entry. "This one is a bit trickier, try it."  
  
AJ looked at the word and contorted his face a bit, but pressed on all the same. "Quick-saw-tick?" He went on when Clementine nodded. "Quixotic, adjective. Extremely idealistic; unrealistic and impractical. Um... James was quixotic."  
  
Violet broke out into a fit of laughter. "You've got a way with words, kid."  


* * *

  
  
"So did they have anything worth trading?" Clementine asked hopefully. It had been a disappointment that she still wasn't quite good enough on her feet to go out and meet the passing caravan herself. She promised herself that next time she would finally make the trip.  
  
"Mostly they kept touting a buncha pre-apocalypse luxury stuff again, I think they must stock up for Delta folks who buy that dross," Violet explained. Clementine couldn't help but smile that Violet had been sprinkling in some words she found in the dictionary. "But we were able to get enough medicine that we should be set on that for a good while."  
  
"Got somethin' else exciting too," Ruby said, and she grabbed out of her bag a handful of small plastic bags.  
  
"Seeds?" Clementine looked over the panoply. She didn't recognize any of the plants these would grow into, but there were at least a dozen different kinds here.  
  
"Yup, I figured since things have been settling down lately, it's high time we tamed that greenhouse."  
  
Violet's face suddenly brightened. "You're going to bring the greenhouse out of abeyance?" she said, emphasizing the final word. Ruby's eyes just about rolled out of her head.  
  
"You've been sneaking looks at the dictionary," Clementine said with a smirk. "You got me, I don't know that one. What's it mean?"  
  
"'Temporary state of disuse,'" Violet recited proudly.  
  
"Never thought I would see the day," Ruby replied. "This gal's made a teacher's pet out of you, Vi."  
  
"What!? Has not!" Violet bayed.  
  
Ruby just smiled and began to leave the office. "Sura ya aren't, you big nerd. Clem, lemme know if you wanna help me end the greenhouse's 'abeyance.'"  
  
The door to the office shut, leaving Clementine and Violet alone. "I'm not a nerd, am I?"  
  
"You're a bit of a nerd," Clementine told her, turning Violet's face lugubrious. Clementine grabbed the sad looking girl's hands to mollify her. "But I like that. You're my nerd."  
  
Violet's cheeks reddened, but her expression became defiant as she went to recriminate Clementine. "Blech. Don't be so saccharine you dork."  
  
"Can't help it. You're my nerd, I'm your dork."

* * *

  
  
Though Clementine would probably never say it, there was something nice about talking to someone who wrote out everything instead of just speaking it. He still had every bit of his winsome charm, but there was also now an assiduousness about his words and sentences. Regardless of medium with which to communicate, he had gone from loquacious to laconic, and somehow he still wore it well. More than ever he always seemed to know what to say, or write as the case was.  
  
At the moment, the two were simply enjoying each other's company. Violet had taken AJ out on patrol of the old safe zone, and Aasim was showing Willy the literal ropes of the traps, so they both had the morning off. Clementine was reading a book on American history which she suspected was skewed by patriotism from its grandiloquent descriptions of events. Beside her, Louis was once again trying his hand at archery with typical results.  
  
Louis eventually gave up and sat across the picnic table from Clementine. She looked up as Louis began writing a message in his notebook. _I can't believe you're reading that for fun. I remember being forced to read it._  
  
"I wouldn't exactly call it fun," Clementine admitted. "But my education stops at first grade, I figure it's time I picked up a little more. Although I might try and find a less tendentious source."  
  
Well _your vocabulary is a bit above than a first-grade level. Know any words for someone that can't shoot straight?_  
  
Clementine put aside the history book and lifted the massive dictionary from beside her on the picnic bench. A minute of hopping between definitions and synonyms later, she had an entry. "Maladroit, inefficient or inept; clumsy. Your shooting is maladroit"  
  
Louis made a mocking gesture of pain, though his bright grin remained. Clementine smiled back and looked back down her books, pondering whether it was even worth continuing to read about how extremely great the founding fathers were in every way. Before she could decide, a sheet of notebook paper slid into her line of sight.  
  
_How are you holding up?_  
  
"I'm doing okay." Clementine took a quick glance around, confirming the two were out of immediate earshot of anyone else. "It's getting easier, but AJ was weird about it this morning."  
  
Louis got up and circled around to Clementine's side of the picnic table. He sat down and put a gentle hand on the girl's shoulder, an implicit entreaty to go on. "He keeps trying to convince me to go on patrol with him. I know physically I probably could but he doesn't understand why I just can't yet. He thinks I'm just scared."  
  
Louis quickly scribbled down a response. _I doubt he's right. Don't think I've ever seen you scared._  
  
Clementine shook her head. "I get scared, same as anyone. I just don't let it control me. It's just..." she trailed off, not knowing what words could carry the ruminations in her mind.  
  
_It would mean facing what you lost head-on?_  
  
Clementine stared blankly at the paper. Of course Louis got it immediately. Despite how close she was with AJ and Violet, Louis understood Clementine in a way neither of those two could. Physical trauma that tore away a core part of their being was a shared vicissitude for the two of them.  
  
"I'm just so weak now. I hate letting people see me like that. I hate seeing _myself_ like that."  
  
_No one expects you to be at 100% again right away._  
  
"No, but AJ wants things to go back to the way they were. It was hard enough for me to accept they won't."  
  
_He'll understand. It makes sense that you still need time._  
  
"Thanks, Louis. It means a lot that you think so." Clementine took another look at Louis' notebook. "Your handwriting is getting really good, by the way."  
  
The soft expression on Louis' face gave way to a wild grin. _I need gorgeous handwriting to live up to the memory of my euphonic voice._  
  
"I don't get how you can be so blithe about this."  
  
_I get angry and depressed about it too. I just don't let it control me._  
  
Clementine couldn't help but grin at seeing her own words turned back at her. He did have a point. "Oh, that reminds me!" She shifted back to her dictionary and began her search. "I found a word the other day that made me think of you." Louis sat patiently as Clementine sorted through the early part of the 'S' words. "Here we go. Sanguine. It means optimistic in the face of hardship."  
  
Louis laughed silently. _Someone has to be._

* * *

  
"I've got a King, anyone beat me?"  
  
Clementine looked at their own flipped card, a three. "My amazing luck strikes again. Lay it on me Aasim."  
  
"Hmm... what food do you miss the most from before the apocalypse?"  
  
Clementine thought for a moment. "I remember my parents were pretty big on healthy food. But sometimes when I did well in school or if they needed to bribe me, they'd let me have Skittles. What I wouldn't give for a pack of those." Around the table comes a series of nods. "Although I'm not sure if that's me really wanting Skittles or if it's just nostalgia for those days."  
  
The nods redoubled. From the end of the table, AJ spoke. "Halcyon."  
  
"Halseewhatnow?" came Ruby's voice.  
  
"Hal-see-on," AJ repeated, then looked diffidently at Clementine. "I'm saying it right, ain't I?"  
  
Clementine gave a hortatory nod. "You are. Go ahead and explain what it means."  
  
"It's like, when you're talking about a time from a while ago that was really nice, right? That time was halcyon."  
  
"An idyllic period, yeah. The good ol' days," Clementine said.  
  
"Sounds like a word we can all relate to then," Aasim said to murmurs of approval.  
  
Clementine felt Violet lift from her shoulder and sit up to speak. "Eh, I dunno. I mean, and don't take this the wrong way, but is no one else sometimes glad the world ended?" A fusillade of uneasy glances went her way. "Seriously. I'm not happy so many people died or anything but sometimes I think about what my life would be like if this had never happened. I'd probably be working some miserable fast food job or something if I hadn't ended up getting in trouble and going to jail for some dumb crap by now. Sure that life would be safer and less scary, probably, but it also sounds pretty bleak too."  
  
The table at large seemed unconvinced. "Sorry, I killed the mood," Violet stated and stood up to escape the tension. Clementine instructed her friends to continue playing without them before following quickly behind Violet.  
  
"Hey, Vi," Clementine said as she finally caught up at the outskirts of the courtyard.  
  
"It was a dumb thought." Violet seemed more like she was speaking to herself than her girlfriend. "Super dumb."  
  
"No, it wasn't," Clementine rebuked. "Come on, let's go somewhere private." She clutched Violet's hand and started leading her off in the direction of the greenhouse. Since clearing out all the overgrowth and planting all of Ruby's seeds, gardening had actually become a favorite hobby of Clementine's alongside reading. If they could get some food growing it would be a nice way to feel useful too.  
  
"I've had that thought too," Clementine admitted once they were inside. "It's not just you."  
  
Violet looked awestruck. "I didn't expect that from you. Wasn't your life pretty good before all this?"  
  
"I guess? Honestly Violet, I was a little kid, I barely remember it. I even... Don't tell anyone I said this, alright? But when I try to picture my parents, all I can see is a pair of walkers I saw in Savannah."  
  
"Jesus, Clementine."  
  
"When I think of my halcyon days, the world had already ended. I was with Lee." The two stood in peaceful silence for a minute before Clementine continued. "I only knew him for a few months, really, but so much of who I am is because of him. I can't even begin to imagine where I would be if all this hadn't happened. I don't even know who I would be."  
  
"Bet you'd still be really cool," said Violet. "And smart."  
  
"Maybe, I don't know. Lee was cool. I wish you could have met him."  
  
Violet sat in one of the greenhouse stools, settling into the conversation. "Well tell me about him. Do you have a fancy word for him?"  
  
Clementine sat down beside Violet and racked through her mental list of words, searching for an epithet for Lee.  
  
"Sangfroid, maybe. It means composure in the face of danger."  
  
"So he was always cool and calm?"  
  
"When it counted he was. Although now that I think about it, maybe it doesn't fit. Before the world ended he was about to be thrown in jail because he got in a fight and killed someone on accident." Violet went wide-eyed but stayed any commentary. "It's hard to imagine he was capable of something like that. Maybe it was just my callowness but he always seemed so unquestionably good."  
  
"The stuff that happened before doesn't really matter now. I mean look at this place, we were brought here because of the crap we did in the past."  
  
"If the world never ended, he would have just gone to jail and I never would have met him. Or AJ. Or you." Clementine wrapped her hand around Violet's and the two allows a quiet to hold for a few blissful moments.  
  
"Perspicacious," Clementine finally said to break the silence. "It means-"  
  
"Keenly insightful," Violet finished. "You read me that one before. So he was cool and smart. Sounds like someone I know."  
  
"Yeah well, I had a great teacher."  



	2. Nascent: Coming into Existence with Future Potential

Everyone was acting oddly today, too nice. There had been a period after losing her foot that the entire school had tried to cosset Clementine, but she quickly made it very clear that she wouldn't have that. So that made today all the weirder, especially given it came out of nowhere and no one would admit they were acting off. Even AJ was completely tight-lipped, despite how easy it was to tell when he was hiding something. Clementine had no idea what was going on, but she had a pretty good idea who was behind it.  
  
"Vi, care to explain?"  
  
Violet declined to look up from her book. "Hey Clem, I'm starting to think this Gatsby guy might not be so great after all."  
  
Clementine rolled her eyes. Same old Violet, at least. "Violet, please pay attention to your girlfriend."  
  
"Fine." Violet looked up. "This book is getting soporific anyway."  
  
"You think all books are soporific, Violet."  
  
"Guilty as charged. So what am I explaining?"  
  
"Why's everyone being so nice to me today?"  
  
"Whoa, your friends are being nice to you? What a mystery," Violet said. She was definitely behind this. A mischievous smirk crossed her face. "You don't know what day it is, huh?"  
  
"I'm starting to think it's 'Mess with Clementine Day.'" Clementine responded standing akimbo.  
  
"Close, but not quite. C'mon, I wanna show you something."  
  
Clementine followed Violet into the center of the ruined bell tower. Memories of climbing the interior walls brought with them mixed feelings.  
  
"Alright, let's get climbing," Violet said with total insouciance, as if it were the easiest thing in the world.  
  
"Violet, what is this?"  
  
"I told you, I'm showing you something. And this tower has the best view."  
  
"Violet, you know I can't." Clementine punctuated her statement by tapping her boot fitted over wood to the ground.  
  
Violet's expression switched from a grin to a hard stare. "I think you can."  
  
"I think I know my limits a bit better than you, Vi."  
  
Violet turned to start climbing up what remained of the wooden staircase at the tower's base. "Yeah, you'd think so. And yet here we are. Let's go."  
  
Clementine clenched a fist. "Violet, I can't. I'm not able yet."  
  
"Oh for fuck's sake, Clementine!" Violet reached first landing and leaned back over the banister towards her. "It's been months! You're able, let's go."  
  
Why did Violet have to hector her like this? A wave of sudden anger washed over Clementine. Her speech as now a scream. "What do you know!?" Violet just shook her head and went to start up the wall. "Get back here!" Clementine shouted after her.  
  
Violet was by now already a third the way up the wall. "I'm going up, Clem. If you want to keep yelling at me you'll have to meet me at the top."  
  
Violet wasn't going to come back down. Clementine could feel the beginnings of tears in the corners of her eyes. Her fists clenched harder. "Do you realize how dangerous this is, Violet!?"  
  
Violet was nearly at the top. "Climbing this tower has never not been dangerous. But the girl I kissed at the top climbed the damn thing anyway."  
  
Clementine clenched her fists harder still and began to march up the first set of steps, blocking out the pain that still came every time she put the ersatz foot down. One deep breath later she was on the wall, driven by pure spite and anger. Muscles Clementine had neglected since her trauma seared from the sudden exertion, which only served to fuel the fury pushing her onward. Before she knew it, Clementine was perched in the window box, looking at the final landing which she needed to jump to reach. If she did it as she did before she would jam the prosthesis into her leg, and then she really wouldn't be able to walk.  
  
Clementine took another breath, pushing away the red the was gathering at the edges of her vision. She could call for Violet, tell her she just needed help at this last part. But the idea only started making her seeth all over again. Maybe she could wrap her arms around the railing and pull herself up, assuming it wouldn't just snap off and fall with her. A stupid risk, she should just call Violet.  
  
As if. One silent prayer to anyone listening later, Clementine threw herself towards the rail. She could feel the metal begin to warp under her weight immediately, there was no time to lose. Without any hesitation, she swung her body towards the landing, hearing the snap of cracking wood as the bolts that held the railing were ripped out. Clementine let out a grunt as the air escaped her when he body impacted. But she had made it. Gathering what remaining strength she had, Clementine stood back up and walked out to the roof of the school. There was Violet, legs dangling over the edge, staring out at the forest below and the horizon in the distance.  
  
"I've done a lot of stupid risky things in my life, Violet," Clementine huffed as she walked over to join her. "And that was the stupidest and the riskiest."  
  
"But I was right, wasn't I? You made it."  
  
Clementine sat. "Doesn't mean it wasn't stupid. Did you actually have anything to show me or was this it?"  
  
Violet sighed. "You know Clem, when this all started—when the walkers first showed up and the world when to shit—I didn't exactly cope well. People kept dying and I was pretty sure I was going to end up in the dirt with them sooner rather than later. Before Marlon we had a string of leaders that didn't last, they all tried to make me carry my weight but I was just so fucking terrified all the time. Eventually, I mean you know how it is. You never stop getting scared, you just learn to push it away and do what you need to do to survive, yeah?"  
  
Clementine gave a nod but stayed silent, letting Violet continue. "I remember when Minnie... when I thought she was dead, I think everyone expected me to just shut down again and become that same scared girl. But the opposite happened. I would go out and scavenge every day, go past the safe zone even. Even when Marlon tried to stop me, I'd sneak out and go anyway, find walkers to fight. I didn't care anymore, it was suddenly so easy to just go because it felt like it didn't matter anymore if I died. Then you and AJ showed up, and all of a sudden it got so fucking hard all over again."  
  
"Violet..."  
  
"Sorry, I'm rambling. Point is... point is I'm so fucking scared, Clem. I'm having to figure out how to be brave all over again. This is all so much harder for me now that I feel like I've got so much to lose." Clementine put a sympathetic hand to her girlfriend's shoulder. "So that's me. I don't know what it is holding you back, but I want to know. I want to help you through it, cause I know you're way stronger than you think you are right now."  
  
A thousand parts of Clementine's brain gave a thousand responses, but a single word won out. "Okay."

  
Finally, Violet was smiling at her again. "Promise?"  
  
There was no need for words. Clementine leaned forward and pressed her lips to Violet's, and in the moment every scintilla of fear that clung to their collective hearts was forgotten. She could feel Violet press back softly with gentle, comforting confidence. If the last kiss they shared on this rooftop was a desperate saving throw of emotion, a grasp for a mote of hope in what seemed like a bleak world, then this was a reassurance. A promise that in withering darkness or blinding light they would be at each other's side.  
  
The two separated slowly, and for a moment just basked in the radiance they felt from one another.  
  
"Happy birthday, Clem."  
  
Clementine's eyes flared wide. "What?"  
  
"October 28th, right? I knew it was coming up so I kept asking Aasim the date. You seriously had no idea?" said Violet. Clementine just blinked. "The others should have finished setting up your party by now. I got assigned distraction duty."  
  
Clementine flopped onto her back and stared up at the nascent night sky above. "Hell of a distraction."  


* * *

  
  
It took settling down in a boarding school surrounded by forest for Clementine to appreciate just how much she enjoyed autumn. The shifting colors, the crisp morning air, the way eddies of wind tossed the leaves. She tried not to let the knowledge that it was all a presage to winter mar her appreciation. According to those who had spent the entire apocalypse here, rationing what scanty comestibles they had during the winter was a given. Especially last winter, when the greenhouse lay fallow. Hence, the providential first harvest was a proud day for both Clementine and Ruby.  
  
"Ya sure you got all that, hun?"  
  
Clementine grunted and adjusted her grip on the heavy box of produce. "Yeah, I've got it, Ruby. No problem."  
  
"Uh huh. You definitely ain't showing off for a certain audience of one."  
  
"Of course not," Clementine said as they approached the door. "Violet's keeping watch, so she'll be too busy looking outside to see us."  
  
Despite her statement, Clementine betrayed her confidence as they reached the courtyard and took a glance up at the watchtower. To her dismay, she immediately made eye contact with a pair of piercing green eyes.  
  
"Hey there buff and buffer. Lookin' good," came the voice of an indolent Violet. She was leaned up against the tower guardrail, her back towards the forest she was supposed to be watching.  
  
Ruby's smug grin was immediate. "You were saying?"  
  
"Hey, Violet!" Clementine bayed, making no attempt to hide the umbrage in her voice. "You're supposed to be watching in the other direction!"  
  
"Can't help it if this direction has a better view," Violet shot back, then shifted to resume her actual job. "Not like there's ever anyth- shit!"  
  
In an instant, Violet crouched down and pressed the scavenged rifle to her shoulder. "HEY! STOP! Not another step!"  
  
Ruby and Clementine set down their crates immediately. "Go get Louis," the latter hissed. Ruby nodded and immediately sprinted into the school. Clementine felt at her side for her gun and knife, both in place, and started moving slowly towards the side gate that any intruder would have to pass through.  
  
"Hands where I can see 'em, come on! I'm not messing around!"  
  
"No problem. We're not looking for a fight." The voice that called back sounded feminine but dark and raspy.  
  
"Coulda fooled me, I see your gun." Clementine reached the edge of the gate, letting Violet's shouting cover any noise from her footfalls. Violet did not look in her direction, but hand lowered slowly to her side and flashed three raised fingers. Three strangers at the gate.  
  
Then came a scoff. "Parlous world out there, or so sayeth the dictum. Maybe you hadn't noticed."  
  
"I noticed. So what are you looking for then?" Violet's grip on the rifle tightened, finger dancing around the trigger guard though not yet entering.  
  
"Group of kids holed up at a school in the middle of the woods. Looks like I found it." Clementine took a deep breath to calm the nerves shooting all across her. It was possible the caravaners had figured out where they more, but aside from that there was really only one group that knew who and where they were to this level; the Delta. "Does that make you Clementine?"  
  
Clementine stiffened, but thankfully Violet remained stolid. "What's it to you?"  
  
"She leads this group, way we hear it."  
  
Violet squinted but otherwise her face betrayed nothing. "Fine. I'm Clementine, the fuck do you want?" As expressive as she normally was, Violet had a well-trained reticence.  
  
Behind her, Clementine saw Louis and Willy slip outside into ambush positions. AJ and Aasim were still out there.  
  
"My friend here says you're full of shit, 'Clementine.'"  
  
"The fuck does he know!?"  
  
A new voice called out. "You're not her!" Masculine, mid-ranged. Familiar somehow, but Clementine couldn't quite place it. "I know her, tell her I'm here!"  
  
Violet rolled her eyes. "And who the fuck are you?!"  
  
"I'm-" The voice clicked in Clementine's head. Gun now raised in front of her, she stepped in front of the gate to put the visitors in her line of sight.  
  
"Gabe?"  
  
"Clem!" The past four years had apparently treated the boy well looks-wise, but perhaps not in wits. Upon meeting eyes with Clementine, he immediately went to take a step in her direction, flouting Violet's order. Before Violet even had a chance to bark at the defiance, the swift hand of the tall woman standing behind Gabe latched onto his collar with a quotidian motion, stopping him in his tracks.  
  
"Whoa there, Romeo." From the look on her face, Clementine could deduce this woman did not appreciate having two guns trained on them. "Look, let's all calm down. My friends and I going to slowly reach for our guns and put them on the ground to show you we're cool. Okay?"  
  
Clementine watched the three figures move in sync, removing a pistol from their waist and lowering it onto the grass. She racked her brain but had no memory of the other two faces. Still holding Gabe's collar was a short-haired woman with a hard face covered in a welter of scar, almost like a more grizzled looking Jane. The third standing in the back beside a horse and cart was a tall, muscular looking man.  
  
"Alright, we're not armed. Mind lowering your weapons so we can talk?"  
  
Violet and Clementine shared a brief chary look, but both lowered their weapons to their sides. "So you found us," said Clementine. "Why are you here?"  
  
"We're delivering your cut of the redress," the woman replied.  
  
"Redress?"  
  
"Reparat-"  
  
"I know what it means!" Clementine snapped. "Why are we getting redress?"  
  
"To the victor go to spoils, lass. The Delta unconditionally surrendered. And the way their reports tell it, you good folks wiped out a squad and sunk a ship loaded with munitions. So this," she gestured to the cart behind her, "is your cut."  
  
Clementine was stunned into silence. That was a lot to take in at once.  
  
"The Delta is gone?" Violet asked askance.  
  
"Dead as disco," the woman replied. Clementine knew this should be good news, and yet...  
  
"Fuck you!" Violet spat, shocking Clementine out of her meandering thoughts. "We didn't want anything to do with your stupid war. You think a cart full of supplies makes up for the people we lost!?"  
  
"You irascible little-" The woman gritted her teeth and took a breath, resuming a calm stance. "No, I don't. Look, none of us wanted war, and I'm sorry about your people. But like it or not the world is changing again. It's getting damn near impossible to be hermetic, so let's break bread and we can make sure this crap never happens again."  
  
Violet looked over at Clementine again, seemingly leaving the decision to her. "Gabe," she said, and the boy shot to attention. "You trust these people?"  
  
"Yeah, you can trust them, Clem," came Gabe's reply. "You can trust us."  
  
Clementine sighed. "What are your names?"  
  
"That's Calvin, he hears just fine but doesn't talk, don't worry about him. You know Gabe. And I'm Jamie"  
  
Jamie... now that had to be a coincidence, right? "Fine, you're in. Don't screw it up. Let's see these spoils."  


* * *

  
  
The world was changing alright.  
  
"I still don't get it," AJ said, craned up to look at the roof of their home. "You said to be careful around those guys, but you put that at... an... that thing so we can talk to them all the time?"  
  
"Antenna," Clementine corrected. "And sometimes you have to talk to people you're not sure if you can trust. Talking is always better than fighting."  
  
"Always?"  
  
Clementine chewed at her lip. She missed when AJ would ask about puerile things, or even just things about walkers. Now it was all philosophy and morality. "Usually. Sometimes you have to fight to protect yourself or people you love. But fighting is dangerous, so if we can avoid it we always do. And talking is one of the best ways to do that."  
  
"So the an-tenn-a will let us talk to them so we don't have to fight them?"  
  
Louis ceased regarding the antenna and looked over and shoot Clementine a concerned look. Maybe she was being a bit too bleak. "Well, we can also help each other now. Like if we ever really need something, we could ask them. And if they ask us for something, we could try and get it for them."  
  
AJ shook his head. "But if we don't trust them, why would we help them?"  
  
"Do you remember when the school had that vote and Louis told us we needed to leave, and then when you got hurt he let us right back in and helped you get better? He didn't trust us then, but he did it anyway because helping people in need is the right thing to do."  
  
"So we would have done the same thing?"  
  
Clementine swallowed. "Yeah, we would have. Doing the right thing isn't always easy, but you always try because that's how we would want other people to treat us."  
  
AJ looked as if he was going to ask another question his mother-figure wasn't ready to answer. Thankfully, rescue came from her eternal hero. "Hey AJ!" Violet called from across the courtyard. "We need someone small to help with wires to get the radio set up. Got a minute?"  
  
Clementine gave AJ a quick nod and he was off. When at last the impressionable child was out of earshot, she sighed and looked to Louis. "At least I hope I would have. It sounds so obvious but..."  
  
Louis began writing as Clementine paused. _Just like you said, it isn't always easy._  
  
"You make it seem easy though. Honestly, I hope AJ starts to take after you a bit more. I don't know if I've done a very good job at edifying him."  
  
Louis smiled but shook his head, still writing as he did. _You taught him to deal with walkers. Now he just needs to learn to deal with people. We'll all help with that._  
  
Clementine smiled and silently reflected on how glad she was to end up here, with these people, at the end of it all. This was a good home.

**Author's Note:**

> No clue how many chapters this will be. I'll just keep posting until I decide it's over then I'll mark this as complete.


End file.
